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Timeline Released in Metro's Fatal Smoke Incident

A D.C. official has released a preliminary timeline in the Metro's fatal smoke incident Monday, which killed one woman and sent nearly 70 other people to the hospital. (Published Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015)

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said a preliminary report on the District's response to the recent deadly smoke incident on Metro will be released within the next 48 hours, she announced Thursday.

The report will come from D.C. Fire & Emergency Medical Services, which will review recorded radio traffic and personnel interviews, reported NBC4's Kristin Wright.

Questions have arisen over the timing of the city's emergency response.

Passengers on a smoke-filled Metro train were still asking when help would arrive 23 minutes after the smoke was first reported at the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station, D.C. officials said Thursday.

City Administrator Rashad Young released a preliminary timeline on Monday's fatal smoke incident, which killed one woman and sent nearly 70 other people to the hospital. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled 61-year-old Carol Glover's death accidental by acute respiratory failure from smoke exposure.

Thirteen emergency calls were initially placed either to 911 or to the Office of Unified Communications. Those calls sent Fire and EMS crews to three different locations, according to Young.

The timeline says the first call about smoke near the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station came from a construction site a half mile away at 3:18 p.m. The caller told the dispatcher that smoke was coming out of the Metro tunnel at 9th and Water Street SW.

3:42 - A caller from a street location of 7th and E Street SW reported his wife was having difficulty breathing after she exited L’Enfant Station

3:42 - Repeat caller from 3:33 – made inquiry “if help is on the way” the caller provided the train number 3031. He was transferred to the Metro Transit Official who told him not to leave the train because the tracks were still live

3:43 - A caller advised he was stuck on the train and it was filling with smoke

3:44 - BFC advises that WMATA confirms that power is shut down; there is a train with people trapped

3:45 - A male caller asked “if help is on the way because the train is filling with smoke”

3:45 - A female caller asking if help is on the way because the train is filling with smoke

3:46 - A second alarm dispatched

4:09 - Battalion Chief 1 advises he is at Operations Command Center and there is a report of a patient having a seizure on the train; squad 1 advises 9th and D; and an adult female is undergoing CPR, requesting a medic

4:12 - Medic 14 advises he is a block away from L’enfant plaza and will respond; Medic 6B responds that he is closer, medic 14 cancels the run

4:19 - Command 2 directs all medical units on L’enfant Plaza to switch to 0A5 (tactical channel due to radio traffic)

4:25 - Medic 27 transports patient to GW, CPR is still in progress

During a press conference the day after the deadly incident, Bowser said that the fire department responded to the scene in a timely manner, although passengers told media outlets that they had endured waits of more than half an hour.

"I of course will defer to the passengers who were on that train. We don't know what time the train actually went down...." Bowser said Tuesday.

"It would appear that based on the calls that we received, the locations we reported to, that our fire department responded in the time frames that are customary," she said Tuesday.